Visa keeps Pak team off unity meet!

THE BANGLADESH-India-Pakistan People?s Forum is striving hard to unite the three nations, but the delegation from Pakistan has not been able to reach the State capital to participate in the on-going convention. Reason: they did not get the visa on time. Members of the forum said the Pakistani delegation had applied for visa long back but they got it only on November 4.

THE BANGLADESH-India-Pakistan People’s Forum is striving hard to unite the three nations, but the delegation from Pakistan has not been able to reach the State capital to participate in the on-going convention. Reason: they did not get the visa on time. Members of the forum said the Pakistani delegation had applied for visa long back but they got it only on November 4. Thus, they could not attend the convention on time. The delegation is on its way and is expected to reach Lucknow on the final day of the convention.

Ironically, the foremost demand of the forum is to urge the governments of the three nations to ease all visa formalities.

In its five-point demand, the forum has advocated to replace the present city-oriented visa with one that is country-oriented. The forum calls for uninterrupted and visa-free communication. Their second demand is to urge the governments to introduce congressional post and cheaper telephone tariff among the three nations.

Other demands of the forum are to simplify formalities pertaining to trade and commerce and free movement of labour, to encourage frequent exchange of literary, cultural, sports, educational activities and to reduce budget allocation in defence and enhance allocation for economic and social development.

Announcing the demands, MP and chairman of the forum Dev Brata Biswas said: “Progress of the three nations depends on their unity at the earliest possible.

When the three nations unite, the rat race for buying sophisticated weapon from developed nations would automatically come to standstill and the money could then be used for constructive purposes.

The forum also laid down an 11-point plan action that envisages to promote friendship, mutual understanding and co-operation among the people of the three countries to get rid of imperialism and fight against religious fundamentalism. The forum vowed to put pressure on the three governments to restore existing disputes amicably without any interference from any fourth country.

It was decided that the forum would jointly host a website that will give a detailed account of sacrifices made by people of the three nations fighting British colonialism. Representatives from each of the nations would upload content on this site. Rallies of ‘milanjatha’ would be organised originating from Dhaka and culminating at Islamabad, passing through New Delhi.

Frequent regional, state and national level conferences, seminars and workshops organised to propagate the objective and orientation of the forum would be its task. The forum would also organise the celebrations of the 250th year of battle of Plassey and 150th years of Mahaswatantra Sangram in the three countries.